Conclave (2024)

	Directed by: Edward Berger	COUNTRY United Kingdom USA GENRE Drama/Thriller NORWEGIAN TITLE Conclave RUNNING TIME 120 minutes
	Produced by: Tessa Ross Juliette Howell Michael Jackman Alice Dawson Robert Harris
	Written by (based on the book by Robert Harris): Peter Straughan

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Cardinal Thomas Lawrence	Ralph Fiennes	½
Cardinal Aldo Bellini	Stanley Tucci
Cardinal Joseph Tremblay	John Lithgow	½
Cardinal Joshua Adeyemi	Lucian Msamati
Mosignor Raymond O'Malley	Brían F. O'Byrne	-
Cardinal Vincent Benitez	Carlos Diehz	½
Cardinal Sabbadin	Merab Ninidze	-
Archbishop Mandorff	Thomas Loibl	-
Cardinal Goffredo Tedesco	Sergio Castellitto
Sister Agnes	Isabella Rossellini	½
Archbishop Janusz Wozniak	Jacek Koman	-

Review

Tight, taut, suspenseful drama highlighting the gravity and significance of the choices we make in life – which, for the College of Cardinals, carry not only personal consequences but also worldwide implications. Conclave is written with a delightful combination of insight and inquisitiveness – it feels like an insider's look, delicately balanced between eavesdropping and scrutiny. As we become acquainted with a chosen group of cardinals just before the conclave following the death of the previous pope, we begin to grasp the in many ways impossible situation they find themselves in, having committed themselves to more or less repress their very human egos and emotions in order to uphold a higher standard – an idealised version of ethics and morality which, of course, is essentially unattainable. This is the predicament Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) and his fellow cardinals must handle in Conclave, and through tight, intimate direction, Edward Berger makes it all feel desperately urgent and weighty. The director makes conversations in corridors and whispered exchanges at lunch almost as suspenseful as ticking clocks in a high-octane thriller. Only in the final quarter does the film begin to falter, through a couple of choices that ultimately undermine the framework of veracity and integrity it has built up. The final twist cannot avoid coming off as constructed – too populist and fashionable – effectively lessening the integrity of the story, not necessarily in and of itself, but in the context of the film.